Leading up to
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NSCAM) NASCIO will be kicking off a webinar series highlighting some of the most important cybersecurity issues impacting states today. NASCIO has been a NCSAM Champion - a way to officially support NCSAM - since its inception several years ago. Champions "
represent those dedicated to promoting a safer, more secure and more trusted internet."

The NASCIO Cyber W3B!N@R Series will start with a look back at Deloitte/NASCIO Cybersecurity Studies and give a preview of the 2018 survey, to be released in October. Check out the list below and be sure to register here.

Tuesday, August 21, 2:00 p.m. ET

"State of Cyber: A Roadtrip Through Where We've Been and Where We're Going"

We hope you can join us for one or all of this webinar series. For more information, please contact Meredith Ward.

Watch on Washington Top 5

House introduces Secure Elections Act House Reps. Gowdy (R-SC), Himes (D-CT), and Sewell (D-AL) introduced the Secure Elections Act in the House which acts as a companion to the Senate measure (S. 2593) led by Sens. Lankford (R-OK) and Klobuchar (D-MN). The House bill is designed to improve information sharing between state and federal officials and sets up a grant program for states to replace outdated voting machines.

State legislators discuss cybersecurity topics At the National Conference of State Legislature's (NCSL) Legislative Summit, the cyber task force discussed disaster response and cybersecurity, national guard cyber training resources, state and local collaboration on cyber, and metrics for evaluating the maturity of cybersecurity which was led by California CISO Peter Liebert. Additional cyber-related topics included: security and emergency response systems for legislatures and responding to cyber threats in legislatures.

FirstNet board meeting On August 13, the FirstNet board met via teleconference and received updates on: technology, network management and operations, governance and personnel among other items. The board passed Resolution 91 which authorizes leadership to allocate a $240 million FY 2019 budget into three categories: operational budget ($81 million), reserve ($81 million), and future reinvestment option in network enhancements ($78 million). Other updates: Band 14 spectrum had been cleared on time and under budget and was completed on July 31, 2018; there are now 41 devices on the NIST approved list; the developer portal for apps added a blog, simplified registration, and an API catalog.

FirstNet/AT&T to offer emergency drop kits and partners with state EOCs AT&T's FirstNet team is creating Emergency Drop Kits which will enable first responders to maintain constant communication within a 300-foot radius. The kits will include an LTE router and smartphones, pre-loaded with FirstNet apps. AT&T's FirstNet team also announced working partnerships with state emergency operations centers (EOC) and will place a liaison in every state's EOC to manage the deployment of mobile satellite trucks and other resources during crises. Read more here.

Got broadband? The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is seeking comments on its Notice of Inquiry which aims to assess the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. One issue that's already come up is whether the 25 Mbps standard is sufficient for today's broadband needs; Commissioner Rosenworcel argues that it should be updated to 100 megabits per second. The Inquiry seeks comment on other issues such as whether fixed or mobile services are functional substitutes for each other, sufficiency of the 25 Mbps/3Mbps benchmark, broadband in schools, among other items. Comments are due by September 10.

GET TO KNOW NASCIO MEMBERS

Civic Initiatives works with state and local governments on program assessments, business process reengineering and procurement transformation. CI is led by veteran government executives with direct experience in successfully delivering on high-visibility, high-risk change projects. Civic Initiatives has played critical roles in transformation efforts in five different states during 2012.

McAfee is a trusted partner for federal government agencies, state and local governments, and education providers, delivering industry-leading security solutions that help public sector entities develop strong cybersecurity defenses, manage security with limited resources, and maintain and prove compliance. McAfee teams with public sector clients to ensure that they have the latest security in place to protect them from endpoint to the cloud.

Trustwave helps businesses fight cybercrime, protect data and reduce security risk. With cloud and managed security services, integrated technologies and a team of security experts, ethical hackers and researchers, Trustwave enables businesses to transform the way they manage their information security and compliance programs.

MAKING CONNECTIONS

NASCIO has been out and about - check out where we've been the last month.

Corporate Leadership Council nominations for the 2018-2019 program year are
open until Thursday, August 23.

The ballot of nominees will be announced to members of the CLC (the designated primary contact for business development for your company) on Wednesday, September 12 with voting instructions.
The newly elected Chair and Vice-Chair for the CLC will be announced during the Corporate Member Exchange meeting at the annual conference in San Diego.